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Friday, 23 June 2017

Converted gas holders round the world

AUSTRALIA

Brisbane.
A water-sealed gas holder remains on the site
of Newstead Gasworks. The remnants of the holder and guide framing are listed
and is now a feature in a new park. See article

AUSTRIA

Vienna - Simmering - This is in four large gasholder houses which were built in
1896-1899 and used until 1986. They could be described as four Albert
Halls in a row! A competition was held in 1995 and four architects were chosen
and each of them was given a gasholder building to adapt. Thus they are flats,
offices and leisure uses. There are shops on the ground floors. Vienna
holdersand the review of their reuse as a
shopping mall, each with a different designer
and the web site

BELGIUM

Rabot, Ghent.There are two listed guide
frames of water sealed gasholders. See article

CZECH REPUBLIC

Ostrava, North Moravia. At the Vitkovice
steelworks a gas holder which held blast furnace gas has been converted into a
multifunctional auditorium called the Gong – it is a place where education,
cultural events, conferences, congresses and all kinds of exhibitions are held.
It has excellent acoustics. Built
1922-24, this holder went out of use in 1998 and opened as a concert hall in
2012. See article and also see

DENMARK

Hobro
Gasworks - a gas museum. This gasworks was built in 1898 and
produced gas until 1967. The two gasholders were used for gas storage until
1986. It is now the Hobro is now the home of the Danish Gas Museum, which was
started in 1995 by the employees of Hovedstadsregionens Naturgas, the company
with the largest coal-gas works in the country.. Exhibition space has been created within the
gas works buildings. See

Denmark
Oestre Gasveark Teater, Copenhagena
renovated gasholder building houses the city theatre with facilities housed
in a new extension, connected to the theatre by a tunnel.. Toilets, workshops
and other support facilities are beneath the stage. See

FINLAND

Suvilahti, Helsinki–there are nine buildings
including , two large gasholders.. It is intended that a cultural centre will
be formed as the buildings are renovated and tenants move in. Suvilahti is
already an established venue for new circus and other performing arts. Helsinki
City Museum has identified Suvilahti as an important site in terms of its
architecture and significance for the city. See

Turku. a gasholder house here built in 1913 was saved by
the local power company Turku Energia and it is now used as a thermal battery
for the district heating network storing hot water. The gasholder house
contains tanks which can hold several million litres of
water at 100 oC. Public spaces have also been created inside
the building and it past it has been used for music events. See

GERMANY

Augsburg. Gaswerks. Part of this 1915 gasworks has been preserved and includes a museum. Coal gas production
ended here in 1968 but natural gas was used by 1978 and the four gasholders
remained in use until 2001. Three of them are still there as are most of the
1915 buildings. . Ausburg was the location of the company
Maschinenfabrik Augburg-Nürnberg (M.A.N.) - hence the M.A.N. dry gasholder
which they invented many of which were built around the world. The preserved
example here is the oldest of this type - it is both the first dry gasholder
and also the smallest. Gaswerksfreunde Augsburg e.V.' have a gas Museum inside
this Gasworks

Berlin. This is a relic from the Second World War. It was originally
a gasholder building
designed by civil engineer Johann Wilhelm Schwedler in 1874 with a brick shell
21 metres high and 56 metres in diameter. The holder was inside and used until
the 1920s. It was later reinforced and used as a six-level air raid shelter -
known asthe Fichte Bunker. It is
Berlin's last remaining brick gasholder building and there are now
flats under the dome.Dresden. A gas holder house here from 1879 - 80 isnow an art gallery. This exhibits a panorama of Dresden in 1756 - as seen
from the Katholische Hofkirche. This is called a 'Panometer', by artist Yadegar
Asisi and it conflates 'panorama' and 'gasometer'. It is almost ten stories
highand had over 500,000 visitors in it first two years. There is also
a large reinforced concrete gas holder built in 1907 - 08. It is
named after the Dresden local authority architect - the Erlwein Gasometer,

Duisberg Tauchrevier Gasometer- indoor diving centre. This
single-lift gasholder with a guide frame was built in the 1920s. The tank
has been converted into an indoor diving centre with the original bell still in
place which as a dome over the pool. This is said to be the largest
such diving centre in Europe with a tank which holds 21 million litres of
water. It is in Landscape Park Duisburg Nord which was once a steel works.

Leipzig. The gasholders here relate
to Leipzig's 1885 gasworks in Richard-Lehmann-Straße. . There
were once four gasholders here but only two survive built in 1885 and 1909-10.
They were used until 1977. The later holder is now an exhibition centre
and has a long running special exhibition - the Asisi
panometers. These are 360 degree panoramas by Yadegar Asisi
on subjects like Mount Everest, Ancient Rome, or the Great Barrier Reef.
attraction.

Germany Oberhausen - This is a MAN type holder 120 metres
high and is now an important cultural centre. Built 1927-29 it is the largest
of its kind in Europe. It was decommissioned in 1988. Described as 'the
landmark of the city of Oberhausen' - it has become 'an entire region's
identification sign that cannot be overlooked'. Web
site - and its size
- and tourism
potential and even more
and its historySchöneberg.This is a
large water sealed gasholder built 1908-10 with a capacity of 160,000 cubic
metres and it is local landmark. A structure which is like the German Reichstag
dome was built at the bottom of the tank in 2009 and inaugurated by Chancellor
Angela Merkel and is used as an event space. A TV political talk show is
broadcast from it.. For 30 Euros customers can climb 78 metres to the top of
the gasholder frame via 456 steps. See here and also see here and also see here and also here and here and here and here and here and, at last, here

GREECE

Technopolis – Athens. The
Athens Gasworks was built in 1857 by the French Gas Light Company.It is near
the city centre and Acropolis and was redeveloped in the 1980s impressively
restored as an industrial museum and cultural centre – the Technopolis. This is
a Museum which aims to highlight both the work’s history and the industrial
development of Athens over the last two centuries. It is dedicated to the
memory of the Greek composer Manos Hatzidakis and is also known as 'Gazi Technopolis
Manos Hatzidakis'. Exhibitions, seminars, music concerts and other cultural
activities take place here. Eight of the buildings have been named after Greek
poets and there is a museum dedicated to the opera singer Maria Callas.

Dublin. A
water sealed holder is now used for flats. The holder, called the Alliance, was built
here in 1884 by S Cutler and Sons of London; the guide frame has been fully
restored and repainted, within which has been built a circular nine-storey 240
apartment residential building with a central light well. See

ITALY

Turin –
Vanchigilia. 'Societa anonima per
l`illuminazione della città di Torino a Gaz' was founded in 1837 and Turin
became the first Italian city to be lit by gas. Two water sealed gasholders
survive in Vanchiglia from the third gasworks here.One is a three-lift telescopic gasholder from
1911 built */here to the designs of Samuel Cutler & Sons of London. It’s the
water tank is partly underground and there are surrounding earth banks. The other
gasholder was to a German patent design by August Klönne of Dortmund built in
1930. and had a capacity of 50,000
cubic metres. Next to the gasholders is the new university 'Campo Luigi
Einaudi' which has lecture rooms with spectacular views of both gasholders. The
gasholders are on land belonging to the local power supply company and are overlooked
by the university. See

Milan -
Bovisa.two
complete water-sealed gasholders are preserved nere.: One to a Samuel Cutler of
London design dates from 1905 and the other is a Klönne-dating from 1930 and both
have four lifts.

Trieste –
Broletto. There is a gasholder building here which dates from 1901
with, it is thought, its underground water tank inside the building.. The outside
is now protected as a cultural monument. a proposal for conversion into a
planetarium and museum of astronomy has not proceeded. See and also see and also see

Venice – San
Francesco della Vigna. This is closeto the walls of
the Arsenal amd was the first gasworks in Venice. There
are two water sealed gasholders here. One dates from 1882 and is listed as a
monument. The other dates from 1928.Demolition was proposed but did not take
place owing to local protest.

Bologna – Porta Mascarella. There is a MAN gasholder
next to the railway: It dates from 1930 and went out of use in 1960,. It is and
is now an industrial monument owned by the City. See

Florence –
San Frediano.Only one historic gasholder remains here, an
original bell-type holder built in 1882 by 'V-Ve-Moussy-Constructeur-Lyon'. The
the guide frame has columns have a circular cross section and at the top
terminate in an ornamental 'flame' decoration. Today a public park surrounds
this gasholder, which is now part of a social centre. See

Rome – San
Paolo. There are four water sealed gasholders whose guide frames
and water tanks have survived By the Tiber in zona San Paolo In 1908 two
telescopic gasholders were built here under a patent of Samuel Cutler &
Sons of London. Both had a capacity of 25,000 cubic metres. A third Cutler-type followed in 1912 with a
capacity of 60,000 cubic metres. All of them have water tanks which are
partially underground. One is the tallest holder in Italy and now called 'luxometro', it
is an art installation, it is illuminated at night and described by a film maker as
a wonderful industrial Coliseum. The other gasholders have been repaired and
re-used by their owner 'ITALGAS' for warehousing, parking, etc. the guide
frames are seen as an important part of the cityscape. See and also see and also see

Riga.
The
first gasworks in Latvia opened here in 1862 and was designed by the technical
director of the Berlin gasworks. It had two castellated gasholder buildings
which were admired and shown on postcards but they were demolished in 1934. The
rest of the complex survives and is the
offices of Riga’s water supply company . A second gasworks opened in 1875.amd a
gasholder building designed by the A Hartmann dates from 1882 and a larger older
designed by K Felsko dates from 1901.
Both of these gasholder buildings are protected as cultural monuments. And
the larger one was refurbished in 1997.

NEW ZEALAND

Dunedin,
South Island. Here the guide frame of a
water sealed gasholder is listed. This It is part of t Dunedin Gasworks
Museum with a preserved engine house, a working boiler house and fitting shop.
There are five stationary steam engines and also displays of domestic and
industrial gas appliances. See

PORTUGAL

Lisbon Matinha
Gasworks. The remains of four water sealed gasholders built in 1940
survive. They went out of use in 1967. The area is to be a wildlife garden
inside a gasholder with landscape features. See and see and see and see and see and see

POLAND

Gdansk.The guide frame of a water sealed
gasholder survives here.Warsaw Two gasholders from 1888 and 1890 survive next to a gasworks museum here. They were
damaged by in the Second World War and rebuilt in 1945. Gas production ended in
1978 and it is intended to refurbish them. See and see and see

RUSSIA

St Petersburg - a site with several holders is under
consideration. These date from 1858 and are near the
Obvodny Canal. See and see and see and see and see

Moscow.There
are gasholder buildings near the Kursky railway terminus. This is an arts
complex with night clubs, offices known as the Arma gasworks and a row of four
brick gasholder buildings survive here. At least one gasholder building in
Moscow has been fully converted. See and see

SPAIN

Oviedo. A water sealed gasholder built 1958-61 survives in the centre of the city close to the cathedral, which is a World Heritage Site. The gasholder frame was listed in 2001 and is now a cultural feature.

Barcelona. The guide frame of a water sealed gasholder designed by Claudi Gil Serra in 1868 remains in Barceloneta Park. The gas works itself was demolished in 1989. See and see

Sweden

Värtan Stockholm. at Norra
Djurgårdsstaden an old dockland area is being redeveloped - The Royal Seaport
development. Central to this is a gas works, Värtagasverket, which is tobe turned
into a cultural centre. There are four low pressure gasholders, two redbrick
gasholder houses, , a steel multi-lift holder built in 1912 and a large MAN
piston-type holder dating from 1932. Plus
a spherical high pressure gasholder. the main stage of the Royal Swedish Opera
will transform oe of te gasholder houses into a 950-seat auditorium. Ballet, opera, art, a library and a museum are
all planned for this area. There
are also plans for a data storage centre inside a 1893 gasholder building. See and see and see and see and see and see and see

Gefle Gasverks, a complete
gas works here has two gasholder houses, now used for theatre performances. Support
facilities are underground and in the surrounding buildings. They are used by
independent theatre groups and organisers of fairs and similar events. See

THE NETHERLANDS

Amsterdam.There are thirteen
heritage buildings here in 'Westergasfabriek'. originally designed by the Amsterdam
architect Isaac Gosschalk Westergasfabriek is now 'Culture park
Westergasfabriek', with parkland, TV studios and a large circular gasholder which hosts trade fairs. See